Monday, November 8, 2010

This post is a perfect indication for how much things have changed for me since last year's Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival. Last year, knowing that bloggers who had never seen my blog before would be reading it (most to see how/why they were mentioned), and with plenty of free time to put it together, I did a very detailed recap with photos of just about everything I ate.This year, I'm so busy producing video recipes already promised to multiple corporate overlords, I'm afraid this will have to do. In addition to not having nearly as much time, any full-blown recap would have taken me four to five times as long to do this year. Why? Because of a breakout session I attended called The Write Taste.Led by friends (and total kick-ass bloggers), Brooke (right) from Food Woolf, Linda (left) from Salty Seattle, and Greg from Sippity Sup, the panel focused on a long list of trite words that wefood bloggers are no longer allowed to use – or as Brooke put it, were "Verboten!" There's regular forbidden, and then there's German forbidden.

This long list of words included: delicious, tasty, yummy, moist, tender, creamy, unctuous, and awesome. Since this represents roughly 87% of my food adjective vocabulary, writing a complete recap would have virtually impossible. It was a really fun session, but unfortunately ended before I had a chance to ask the panel what the hell I'm suppose to use in their place.

Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival 2010 – Gala Dinner Photo Recap

Saturday night was the Gala Dinner at the 2010 Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival, and it was quite an evening. The setting was San Francisco's beautiful Ferry Building, and if I knew how to use my camera at night, I would have had some amazing photos.

The festivities started with a cocktail hour in the plaza, and there are very few things I enjoy more than being surrounded by hundreds of chatting food bloggers enjoying wine and passed hors'douves. A couple of my favorites were these zucchini and parmesan madeleines filled with crimson cured salmon and lemon crème; and creamy polenta cups with goat cheese and Provencal vegetables.

After just the right amount of snacking, we moved upstairs to the Grand Hall. The food was done by one of San Francisco's top caterers, Paula LeDuc, and for a crowd this large, I thought the meal was executed very well.

The first course was a roasted golden beet tart with feta, wild arugula, and puree of basil. I've never been a big beets guy, but nevertheless enjoyed this very much. The satisfying tart was impossibly light, almost weightless. The diced red beets alongside provided an excellent textural and visual foil.

Next came my favorite course of the evening, a perfectly seared diver scallops with braised fennel, fried fennel fronds, and a verjus beurre blanc. Knowing how hard it is to serve scallops with such a perfect consistency, even for a small party, I was beyond impressed. I believe I described the texture as how pinching God's cheeks would feel. I really don't know what that means either, but at least I didn’t say "tender."

The main course, rack of lamb loin with pinot noir sauce and butternut squash puree, was expertly prepared also, but suffered from the bad luck of having to follow the scallops. The meat, infused with rosemary and garlic, was flavorful and retained an appropriate level of hydration (man, I would have loved to use "moist" right there). The local wild mushroom ragout alongside was spot on, and the butternut squash puree was butternut squash puree.Above and beyond the [whatever another awesome word that means delicious] food and wine, I was lucky enough to get several great tastes of home-brewed beer smuggled in by my favorite beer blogger (which I can't confirm or deny was Jesse from Beer and Nosh).

The dessert course featured a "Tarta de Almendras" – a buttery almond cake with oranges, figs, and sherry sabayon. The plate was topped with what I initially though was a "shredded wheat crisp" (thanks a lot, too much wine), but what turned out to be a tangle of caramelized parmesan.

Luckily, my buddy Joel, from Six by 10 Tiny Kitchen, corrected me before I made a fool of myself in front of the table, which would have been highly embarrassing since it included food blog rock stars, Pim from Chez Pim, Elise from Simply Recipes, and Mark from No Recipes.

It was an enjoyable evening of great food, wine, and conversation, made even more so when I won a $100 prize for having one of the weekend's best tweets. During the The Write Taste session we were told to use the Twitter hashtag #fbzwrite for our tweets describing bites at the Grand Tasting, after which the five best would be chosen. Here's my winning entry:

By the way, I've decided to donate my winnings to a holiday charity. I'm not doing this to be nice, or socially responsible, but because Tweeting may one day become an Olympic event, and I want to maintain my amateur status.

A hearty thanks to Foodbuzz for a fabulous weekend of food blogging fun!

What an Awesome! Yummy! Delicious! Post!!! Seriously I was regrettably not there, but I saw/read about such mouth-watering foods and heard all the accolades (which coming from such food enthusiasts, some of whom I know, I can actually believe it-- unless you were all drugged -- y'all could have been literally food buzzed ;-P )

I'm glad you provided that list of words. I need a list. Problem is, if I start using these, they will become verboten. I am always behind the trend. I can't believe I missed the appetizers!They look awesome/amazing/creamy/delicious/tasty! :)

A delishiously awesome REcap of an amazing and yummy event (figured I'd use those words since I'm not blogging right now, right?) Loved seeing you and you were so fun and informative as a panelist in the Video Blogging session, too. I think you'd be great on screen, no matter what you think :D Whenever you're in LA, please let me know.

I can help you use your camera at night! I actually got some really cool shots of the Ferry Building the night of the gala - some with motion blur of passing cars, etc. I just posted my photos today! :) Diana

I totally missed those good looking zucchini and parmesan madeleines -- and I totally missed meeting you (I guess we were on different ends of the Festival). I enjoyed your recap of the weekend and I think your photos are very nice!